EI reports Kenyan Teachers' Victory

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Campaigning for permanent Contracts in Kenya last Year
Education International has published an article on its website drawing attention to an important victory last year by Kenyan teachers
Last year, as we reported at the time, the Kenyan National Union of Teachers (KNUT) successfully won a struggle to end the practice of employing contract teachers in Kenya - a practice that is prevalant throughout the Global South, is encouraged by the World Bank and is becoming increasingly common in OECD countries too as an earlier post today about New South Wales on this site illustrates. As a result of the KNUT strike 18,000 contract teachers were made permanent. One teacher commented on this site at the time:
I want to speak as a true victim of the said contract terms of employment. Yes, we were absorbed in September last year at KES 15000 per month as salary. We r not complaining abt workload but this money is not enough to pay for even my fare to work for 30 days! How do I then eat,dress?
Come Sept 1st,we will be the first people to down tools as we fight for better terms!
According to reports on the internet, actions by KNUT earlier this month have also been successful, with the government agreeing to release money for education after the teachers struck to demand that the funds be forthcoming.
There are many things that unions in the North could learn from the struggles of teachers in the Global South - it is good to see this reported on the EI website . The future for international work must be based on reciprocity - sharing ideas and asking for and giving solidarity - rather than giving advice.